For Customer Success leaders, the pressure to drive not just retention but also revenue growth is intensifying. Customer Success teams are no longer simply the keepers of customer satisfaction; they are rapidly evolving into critical drivers of expansion and revenue outcomes. But how do you uncover the often-hidden signals that customers are ready to grow with your business?
This is the focal point of our on-demand webinar, Unlocking Expansion: How to Spot the Signals That Customers Are Ready to Grow, featuring Taylor Johnston, Senior Director, Gainsight Advisory Services, Gainsight. If your team is looking to identify opportunities for expansion and connect the dots between customer behaviors, digital engagements, and business outcomes, this webinar is designed for you.
Here’s a teaser of what you can expect to learn from this session—and why you’ll want to dig deeper by watching the full webinar.
Why Expansion Is the New Mandate for Customer Success
The role of customer success has shifted dramatically over the last few years. Where once it was primarily about reducing churn and ensuring renewals, customer success teams are increasingly tasked with contributing directly to expansion revenue.
The good news? Your next big expansion play is already waiting in your customer base. “Let’s go get it,” says Taylor Johnston. “Think about those meaningful moments, where customers might be talking and engaging, that you could take advantage of: work where they are working, educate them where they are asking to be educated,” says Johnston. And she’s right—your customers are already signaling their readiness to grow. The challenge lies in spotting and acting on those signals effectively.
One key driver of this shift is the rising cost of acquiring new customers, or CAC. As organizations face tighter budgets and higher customer acquisition costs, the financial logic of expanding within the existing customer base becomes undeniable. In fact, for B2B SaaS companies, specifically, the average customer acquisition cost is 76% higher for new customers than it is for expansion business. According to Benchmarkit’s 2024 B2B SaaS Performance Metrics Benchmark Report, the average new customer CAC for B2B SaaS companies is $1.76, while the average expansion CAC is only $1.00.
Expansion opportunities, when identified and acted upon, have the power to turn a good quarter into a great one. But spotting those opportunities requires a strategic approach and a clear understanding of customer signals.
What Signals Should You Be Looking For?
A critical takeaway from the webinar is understanding where to look for expansion opportunities. These signals are often hiding in plain sight, buried in data or embedded in customer interactions across channels like Slack, Zoom, email, and product usage analytics.
Learn more in our blog, Why Real-Time Customer Insights Are Nonnegatiable for Revenue Growth in 2025
Here are a few key types of signals to consider:
- Behavioral Signals: Increased product usage, spikes in adoption, or engagement with high-value features are often signs that customers are deriving value from your product and may be ready to expand their investment. Don’t underestimate the power of in-app engagement, Johnston notes. Meet your customers where they are to help them discover new use cases or features.
- Community Activity: Vibrant participation in your customer community can be a goldmine of signals. Highly engaged customers are more likely to expand their relationship with your business. Gainsight’s own analysis found that customers actively involved in their community had a twice the propensity to expand. As Johnston puts it, “Community fosters trust, and trust translates into opportunities for growth.”
- Learning and Education: Customers seeking to educate themselves about new features or best practices within your platform are signaling an intent to deepen their partnership with your business. Tracking learning engagement and content consumption can uncover use cases they might not yet be taking full advantage of.
By mapping these signals across the customer journey—from onboarding to adoption, and from ongoing engagement to advocacy—Customer Success teams can begin to connect the dots and proactively identify moments when a customer is primed for expansion.
Leveraging Technology to Connect the Dots
While identifying customer signals is crucial, acting on them in a timely and meaningful way is just as important. Here’s where technology comes in. The webinar explores how AI and automation can augment your customer success efforts, turning unstructured data into actionable insights and helping your team prioritize their outreach.
For example, Staircase AI by Gainsight enables Customer Success teams to analyze conversations, support tickets, and other interactions for signals of expansion potential. These insights can trigger targeted actions, such as a proactive outreach to discuss an upsell opportunity or a personalized email from an executive.
According to Johnston, AI agents are not here to replace your team, but to enhance their ability to listen, spot patterns, and act faster. By automating workflows and identifying key signals, AI frees your team to focus on what they do best—building meaningful customer relationships.
A Proactive, Revenue-Driven Mindset
The overarching theme of the webinar is a call for Customer Success teams to shift their mindset—from protecting revenue to generating it. Whether your team is sourcing leads for account managers or directly owning an expansion quota, there’s an opportunity to influence the pipeline in measurable ways.
One critical tool for achieving this is the customer success qualified lead (CSQL). These are signals identified by the customer success team that indicate a warm lead with real expansion potential. Johnston emphasizes that CSQLs are among the highest-converting leads in any organization’s pipeline, and tracking their source, volume, and conversion rate is essential to building a repeatable expansion strategy.
Watch the Webinar On-Demand
If you’re ready to unlock the hidden potential within your customer base, the strategies and insights shared in this webinar will give you a clear starting point. From spotting expansion signals to leveraging AI and creating a culture of revenue ownership in customer success, this session is packed with practical takeaways you can apply immediately.
Don’t let hidden opportunities slip through the cracks. Watch the full webinar, Unlocking Expansion: How to Spot the Signals That Customers Are Ready to Grow, to learn how to transform overlooked insights into repeatable growth.